Weeks after the closure of once unicorn fintech player Zestmoney, it’s co-founder Lizzie Chapman is said to have joined Reliance Industries’ subsidiary, Jio Platforms. Highly placed sources say Chapman has started work at the Mumbai headquartered company and she would be leading the team which is building the super app for Jio Platforms. “She’s already onboard. Her role does not have much to do with Jio Financial Services for now,” said a senior banker aware of the matter.
When reached out, the spokesperson for Reliance Industries said the company would not want to comment on human resource related matters. Chapman denied the development, calling it speculative. Her LinkedIn profile indicated her return to Mumbai from Bengaluru.
Jio Platforms is the subsidiary of RIL, which houses several digital businesses of RIL.
In 2020, RIL raised nearly ₹1.65 lakh crore by selling around 33 per cent stake it held in Jio Platforms. A clutch of marque investors including Facebook (holding 9.99 per cent stake), Google (7.7 per cent stake), General Atlantic, private equity major KKR, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Mubadala are among the noted investors of Jio Platforms. The company is said to be working on creating a super app which would encompass all its business verticals. With the work gaining momentum in recent months, Chapman has apparently been roped in to speed up the process.
Chapman’s India journey
Back in 2011, Chapman came to India as the country head of Wonga, now defunct Britan based payday loan startup. After a one-year stint at DSB Bank India where she was heading its ‘Digibank’ initiative, in 2015 along with Ashish Anantharaman and Priya Sharma, Chapman’s former colleagues at Wonga, the trio founded Zestmoney in August 2015. In May this year, merger talks with PhonePe fell apart and the founders moved out of the company. On December 6, Zestmoney’s management in a town hall meeting is said to have informed its employees that the company would be winding down by December 31. Interestingly, a few days back on LinkedIn, it received an acquisition offer from a hardly known fintech called KreditPE.